Final leg of Dinkytown Greenway opens to bike traffic

The last section of the Dinkytown Greenway is now open to bicycle traffic. The new quarter mile stretch of the bikeway runs from the west end of the bridge over the Mississippi River, under Interstate 35W and onto downtown Minneapolis streets. Bicyclists from Saint Paul, the U of M East Bank campus, Falcon Heights and the northeast metro can now pedal straight into downtown Minneapolis without encountering motor vehicle traffic for most of the way.

Much of the 1.2-mile, $6.45 million Dinkytown Greenway runs within a railroad trench that cuts through the East Bank campus. The greenway includes an old railroad span over the Mississippi River that’s been converted into a bike and pedestrian crossing. On the West Bank, the greenway takes bike traffic by the Bluff Street Park and through a tunnel under the I-35W Bridge before connecting to 13th Avenue South in downtown Minneapolis.

Bikeways like the Dinkytown Greenway separate bicycle transit from motor vehicle traffic. This reduces on-street congestion and the potential for bicycle-motor vehicle conflict in areas that get a lot of bicyclists. In fact, the Dinkytown Greenway passes directly beneath 15th Avenue SE, which is the city’s busiest on-street bikeway.